If you vote Leave, you won't kick the establishment in the b***s... you'll shoot yourself in the foot: RICHARD BRANSON on why he's voting Remain

In almost 50 years of business, I have launched hundreds of new ventures. There is an enormous thrill in starting something from scratch – the excitement of entering a new market, of building a team, the fun of disrupting the status quo.

Over the years I’ve had to take many leaps of faith as we moved into fields we knew little about. I signed an unknown musician named Mike Oldfield and created my own record label because I’d never before heard anything quite like Tubular Bells.

I convinced Boeing to lease me a jumbo jet to start a single-plane airline from London to New York, because I knew there was a gap in the market for an airline that really cared. I ordered tilting trains when we did not have a track ready to run them on, because it would eventually speed up journeys.

I am one of a rare breed of business people still going who can remember what it was like before the European Union was formed. When I took my first steps in business in the 1960s and 70s, trade and travel were a drag

But no matter what the challenge – and there were many we got wrong too – I always made sure I understood the downside risks involved before I leapt in. Today, the UK faces a decision where the risks are great. My reputation is of being a risk-taker – the cat with nine lives – but leaving the European Union is not a risk I would want to take. Not as an investor, not as an entrepreneur and certainly not as a father and grandfather concerned about the world we leave to the next generation.

I am one of a rare breed of business people still going who can remember what it was like before the European Union was formed. When I took my first steps in business in the 1960s and 70s, trade and travel were a drag.

In those days I couldn’t move my people between Britain and continental Europe without visas and months and months of trying to get permission. I couldn’t move goods between Britain and Europe without high taxes and the enormous bureaucracy that went with it.

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But over the past decades, the European Union has knocked down those barriers and made it easier for UK companies to expand abroad. They can trade without tariffs or taxes.

People can live, work, and travel wherever they please within the Common Market. And thousands have seized the opportunity to study abroad, whether in Barcelona, Berlin or Budapest.

Although I personally have lived overseas for some years now, Virgin businesses employ nearly 50,000 people in the UK and these British businesses trade around the globe. We’re not alone. Up to three million British jobs are linked to the UK’s membership of the world’s largest single market – a market of more than 500 million consumers, offering unparalleled opportunities for investment and trade. Almost half of all British exports go to other EU countries. That could change quickly.

Those polled thought Prime Minister David Cameron has had the best referendum campaign so far

Brexit would deal a devastating blow to the UK’s economy, killing many jobs and hitting the strength of the pound. Some say leaving is about sovereignty. Well, if the goal is to stay in Europe’s Economic Area and to reap the benefits of free trade, the UK would still have to play by the same rules and pay into the pot. Yet, the Government would not have a seat at the table when the rules are made. That’s not what I’d call sovereignty. That’s a bad idea.

Bear in mind that even the UK’s trade with the rest of the world benefits from dozens of trade agreements the EU has negotiated. Painstakingly, I should add.

Renegotiating those agreements would be complex and onerous. Why? Because the rest of the world would much rather have access to a market of 500 million than one of 64 million. That’s not fear-mongering but common sense. The global market is competitive enough as it is. Why set up more obstacles?

Brexit raises other key questions: would UK citizens ever enjoy visa and passport-free movement across Europe again? What about the status of the estimated two million EU nationals working in the UK, quite a few of them for Virgin businesses? Where should they go?

Even under the terms granted to Switzerland and Norway, freedom of movement is not negotiable. Nor should it be. Study after study has shown that the effect of European immigration on the UK is a positive one, as immigrants tend to contribute more to the country than they take out. Blaming breakdowns in public services on them is not just disingenuous. It’s a myth.

Only 10 per cent of voters think Nigel Farage has had a good campaign while 43 per cent think this poster depicting migrants was inflammatory with less than a third thinking it was fair

Britain’s universities – among the best in the world – will be affected. They produce ground-breaking research and world-class innovation. Much of that relies on EU funding, about £500 million every year. Brexit would seriously limit the flow of funding, risking a brain drain of the UK’s best minds to other countries. One of the EU’s most important achievements is that its members no longer go to war with each other. I lived in the UK for five decades and represent the first generation of my family not to fight on European battlefields, as my father and grandfather did.

Instead I was able to become an entrepreneur, thanks to a new vision of peaceful partnership between Europe’s nations – one built on trade, openness and collaboration. Even Winston Churchill was a fan.

As early as 1946, he called for a ‘United States of Europe’, where millions will ‘be able to regain the simple joys and hopes which make life worth living’. Nobody is perfect, but Europe’s institutions have delivered on this promise.

There are few occasions in your life where you can see things going horribly wrong. This is one of those occasions, where the wrong decision will do irreparable damage both to Britain and to Europe.

Some people think that by voting Leave they will somehow punish the ruling class. Some are looking backwards and inwards for inspiration and hope – when they should be looking forward at a wide world of opportunity. If you vote Leave you are not kicking the establishment in the b***s – you are shooting yourself in the foot.

The global threats facing British citizens young and old, like climate change, financial crisis or conflict, are best addressed collectively. No question, being part of the EU not only makes Europe stronger, but the UK too. June 23 will determine if voters would rather live in Little England or in Great Britain.

And Great Britain has always stood for democracy, compassion, justice and inclusion. Let the arguments of the day not diminish its place in the world. If you agree with me, I’d urge you to vote Remain.